


il me dit danse

by iavenjqasdf



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, but not necessarily good at math, chills with shigure at his mom's house, dwyer runs away from home, shigure is a good friend, these tags are a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 15:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9187385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iavenjqasdf/pseuds/iavenjqasdf
Summary: Dwyer and his father have an argument and Dwyer leaves home. He ends up staying with Shigure's family for a while. He hopes to use that time to sort out the mess his life has become. Turns out some things just have to get worse before they get better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A co-op fic for the rarest of rarepairs pls become inspired and also write shigure/dwyer aka shigudwy aka lullaby pLEASe

  
  


_**Today** 9:32 PM _

_ The last question on the trig homework is asking for H _

_ I keep getting 16 but when I plug it back in it’s wrong _

_ What did you get? _

On a normal day, Dwyer might have found it amusing that Shigure still couldn’t seem to grasp his math homework. Dwyer had gone over it with him a hundred times, maybe two. Luckily, this was senior year, and he doubted that whatever fancy-pants art school that Shigure would inevitably attend would care much about math grades.

 

However, that night had not followed a normal day. It followed a horrible day. Dwyer sucked in a breath of air that was chilled enough to hurt his lungs.

 

_**Today** 9:32 PM _

_ The last question on the trig homework is asking for H _

_ I keep getting 16 but when I plug it back in it’s wrong _

_ What did you get? _

_ dunno. i left mine at home _

_ sry _

_ You’re not home? Where are you then? _

_ umm _

_ ‘Umm’? _

_ got into it with dad so im sitting at the park _

_ maybe forever _

_ Oh _

_ Is everything alright? _

_ Are you going to go home soon? _

_ no _

_ not tonight anyway _

_ maybe never _

_ So what? You’re going to live at the park? _

_ ya _

_ What? It’s freezing outside! _

_ Go home. _

_ park is my home now  _

_ i met a squirrel _

_ Mom said you can stay here. _

_ Don’t move I’ll come pick you up. _

_ Don’t touch the squirrel. _

_ but he’s my friend now _

 

Dwyer closed his eyes and laid back against the slide. Almost immediately he shivered, the plastic was cold enough to shock any sleepiness out of him.

 

Shigure was too nice for his own good; Dwyer was sure that one day his generosity would get him into trouble. Especially if he kept being nice to Dwyer. But they’d been best friends for as long as he could remember, and Shigure’s kindness never did seem to expire...

 

It wouldn’t be so horrible to spend a night at Shigure’s house, Dwyer figured. Even if he would have to redo his trig homework. It always smelled nice there, and Azura was always so kind to him...

 

Dwyer shut his eyes with a sigh. Or… he could sleep there, on that slide. Probably wasn’t the brightest idea he’d ever had, of course. He’d probably just freeze to death. Maybe that would teach his dad a lesson?

 

No… now he just sounded like a brat. He didn’t want to teach his dad a lesson; not one that would cost him his own life, anyway. He just wanted his dad to stop being so…  _ himself _ . 

 

“Too cold.” Dwyer murmured to himself. He stood, rubbing at his arms in an attempt to warm up. Bare arms, because he hadn’t thought to grab a jacket on his way out. He knew exactly where his favorite hoodie was, of course; draped over the back of the sofa as always. “Very cold.” He just had to wait for Shigure to get there with his car. Not his car. Azura’s car, probably. Shigure didn’t have a car of his own yet.

 

Shigure was… perfect. Dwyer had known that their whole lives. Shigure worked hard to be smart, to be attractive, to have many talents. He really was the perfect son. He lived up to all the expectations placed upon him and rarely complained, and when he did, it was only in hushed whispers to Dwyer. Outside of that, he was everything that his parents wanted him to be.

 

Dwyer was never what his father wanted him to be. He was never perfect, never even good enough, so he stopped trying. Or at least… he’d have liked to say that. He would have liked to say that he didn’t care what his dad thought of him, that it didn’t matter. But it did; it mattered a  _ lot _ . He didn’t stop trying, he tried even harder. He tried to be better than his father at everything. Maybe that was what made Jakob resent him?

 

Dwyer took slow steps towards the swing set. Eventually he found himself seated on the swing, but he didn’t have much motivation to do more than drag his feet through the wood chips that covered the ground beneath. The wind picked up, brushing through his hair and causing him to shudder. He’d be an icicle within the hour at this rate; how had he thought he was going to make it through the night out here?

 

The crunch of gravel under tires and the flash of headlights made him glance up. There he was, just like he promised. Shigure always kept his promises. Because he was perfect.

 

Dwyer pushed himself up off of the swing and dragged his feet as he started towards the car. Shigure met him halfway, jogging to a stop as he put his hands on Dwyer’s arms.

 

Shigure’s hands were warm on Dwyer’s icy skin, and the heat flooded down to his wrists.

 

_ So warm _ .

 

“You don’t even have a coat on?” Shigure asked.

“Uh-”

“Take mine.”

 

Dwyer meant to protest, he really did, but he hardly had the opportunity before Shigure had peeled off his coat and pushed it into Dwyer’s arms.

 

It was just a black coat, buttons up the side in a traditional, military sort of style. It was pretty fashionable; Dwyer wouldn’t normally be caught dead in something like it, he wasn’t really into that preppy stuff but… Well, it was warm with Shigure’s heat, and still smelled like him, too.

Dwyer slipped his arms into it and pulled it tight around himself. Shigure rocked on his heels and rubbed his own arms as they were met with the cold. “Let’s go. Will you tell me what happened?” He asked.

 

Dwyer was pretty sure that Shigure smelled perpetually of rosewater and white tea, and it was always a nice smell. He nodded and walked back to Shigure’s car with him. Once his back hit the seat and his buckle was in place, though, he found himself frowning.

_ Will you tell me what happened? _

Shigure turned up the heater in the car as he put it into gear. Dwyer stared at his own knees. They were shaking. With nerves, or was he just cold? He hardly knew.

 

“It was about my sleeping habits again,” he started at length.

Jakob hated that Dwyer napped so often. Dwyer hated being awake when his day was perpetually filled with discontent and disapproval. “It shouldn’t matter… I finish all my chores and get good grades. Why should it matter if I take a nap? It doesn’t make me ‘lazy’...”

Shigure nodded silently. Dwyer bit his lip, his words coming out a little faster. “I mean, all he ever does is complain about me  _ to _ me, you know? I’m never good enough. Even when I do everything right, he reaches down and scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find some way to make me look bad.”

Dwyer leaned back against the headrest with a sigh. “I don’t get it. I’m his son. He never used to be like this, but after mom died…”

 

Well, it could probably be traced back to that event. The day Dwyer suddenly wasn’t good enough overlapped with the day Felicia passed away; Jakob hadn’t been the same after that.

“Dwyer?” Shigure asked, glancing in his direction briefly before looking back to the road. “Are you alright?”

 

“Not really.” Dwyer admitted. Jakob wasn’t a bad man. Underneath everything, Dwyer was sure of it. He was sure Jakob loved his son. 

 

Maybe it was just wishful thinking. Jakob wasn’t abusive, exactly, but their fights had been getting out of hand lately. There wasn’t much in the way of stopping them, either, it seemed.

 

“I’ve never heard you talk so fast.” Shigure said, turning onto the street his mother’s house was on. 

 

Dwyer pressed his lips into a flat line.  _ Well, yeah _ . He’d never really been angry enough to rant like that before.

Maybe it was because Dwyer had gone quiet, or because Shigure was his best friend and always knew just what he needed, but when they pulled into the driveway, Shigure reached out and brushed his fingertips against Dwyer’s cheek. “You should have some coffee. You’re as cold as ice.”

“I’m not cold anymore.” Dwyer muttered back.

He ended up having a mug anyway.

 

~~~

 

Dwyer was invited to spend one night in the spare bedroom down the hall from Shigure’s. The fact that it had been three, and Azura still hadn’t seen it fit to throw him out, was nothing short of a miracle.

 

He skipped school for two days. Then came the weekend, and he was sure that by Monday, he’d be able to convince himself to go back to class. It was just too much stress. He felt like a failure. His father hadn’t even texted him, let alone called.

Didn’t Jakob see he’d done something wrong?

~~~

 

The first day that Dwyer stayed over, Shigure woke him up at six thirty to get ready for class. When Dwyer decided not to go, Shigure had shrugged, then gone about his business of getting dressed and left.

 

Dwyer crawled out of his own bed and shuffled down the hall to Shigure’s, curled up in his tea-scented sheets, and fell asleep once more.

When he woke up, there was a stack of clean, folded laundry at the foot of the bed. Azura must’ve dropped it off, which meant she had to have seen him sleeping there. She obviously hadn’t cared too much if she didn’t make anything of it.

Dwyer sat, pondering the cleaned clothes. He wondered if there were ways he could help out around the house; maybe that might make Azura feel less weird about offering to let him stay for so long. After all, she’d probably just agreed to it out of pity. Wasn’t that why anyone said ‘you can stay with us’?

 

Dwyer took up the responsibility of cleaning Shigure’s room, and then doing the laundry, and soon any other chores he could get his hands on. Azura’s house wasn’t kept as strictly clean as Jakob’s, so it was easy to maintain. Dwyer was satisfied; he just wanted someone to make himself useful.

 

Azura always smiled and thanked him for his help.

~~~

 

By the time a week had rolled around, Dwyer was pretty sure his father either hadn’t even noticed his absence, 

or simply didn’t care. He hadn’t said a word… and shouldn’t he have? Shouldn’t he have felt some kind of regret 

for chasing away his only child?

 

~~~

 

Shigure’s younger brother was better at video games than Dwyer. It was hard to admit, because Dwyer was an avid gamer; he’d been the one who introduced Percy to this particular fighting game, after all, but Percy was quickly surpassing his teacher.

Luckily, Shigure was  _ horrible _ at games, so it sort of balanced them out. He played only for the sake of spending time with Percy and Dwyer, but… he really did suck. Dwyer had seen him accidentally attack Percy more than once when they were playing on the same side; it was the only reason that Dwyer had a decent shot at victory.

 

Dwyer sat on the couch with his legs folded under himself; it was how he was most comfortable. Shigure curled into a sort of ball, knees pulled up near his chest when he played; that probably contributed to why he was as bad as he was, because there was just no way he could properly hold the controller like that, but Dwyer liked it. He’d lean against Dwyer when things were getting particularly tense, obviously nothing more than a lazy friend drooping against another, but... Dwyer liked to imagine it was affection. Dwyer liked to imagine it was something more like a crush. Why?

 

Well, because Dwyer had a crush on Shigure as well. Of course, in spite of how obvious he thought it was, Shigure never acted like he knew. Dwyer never said anything of it, either.

 

“Aggghhh—Shigure, you  _ suck _ !” Percy shouted. He reclined in a beanbag chair on the floor, singlehandedly keeping his team alive, because Shigure’s had just walked off an edge to his death. Again.

 

Dwyer chuckled, but Shigure shifted upright to focus on the screen a bit more. “Wait—am I the red one?”

 

“You’re the  _ blue one _ . Like your stupid hair,” Percy scoffed. “ _ I’m  _ the red one.”

 

“Oh. I was wondering why I was doing so well.”

 

This time Dwyer outright laughed. Hard, too, until his eyes watered and he lost sight of his goal on the screen and he lost. Percy threw down the controller and jumped up, striking a victorious pose. “We won! Well,  _ I _ won. Shig barely counts. I would’ve won sooner if he wasn’t on my team.”

 

“Aw, come on. I can’t be  _ that _ awful,” Shigure muttered, setting his controller aside. Dwyer glanced at him from the corner of his eye. He didn’t look like he was having much fun poking fun at himself anymore.

 

“Yeah, you really  _ are  _ that awful,” Percy jeered.

 

“Hey, ease up, Percy. He’s not  _ that _ bad. You just have a lot more practice,” Dwyer interrupted.

 

Percy glanced at him like he was surprised for a second, but then shrugged and smiled. “Yeah, I guess. I’m not good at any of the stuff Shig’s good at, anyway,” Percy laughed.

 

Just like that, Shigure smiled again, soft and gentle, earning a playful punch on the shoulder from his brother.

 

Dwyer smiled too. Was this what arguments were supposed to sound like? He couldn’t remember a time he ever argued with his father and ended up smiling. Angry huffs and slammed doors were a more typical end to their spars.

 

~~~

 

“It’s been over a week,” Shigure said. They were sitting together on his bed, textbooks out and working on their homework together (in truth, it was more Dwyer explaining sine waves to Shigure for the nth time).

 

Dwyer glanced up with an expression like he didn’t know what Shigure was talking about.

He did.

Shigure was quiet for a few more seconds after that, but Dwyer knew he wasn’t going to drop the subject; he could tell by the way Shigure tapped the eraser end of his pencil against his notes. If Shigure wasn’t doing his work, something had to be wrong.

 

“I mean- Do you think he even has a heart? How can he ignore you like this? He has no idea where you are.”

“Hey,” Dwyer said, once more glancing up at Shigure. “It’s fine. Just don’t worry about it.”

 

“Wh—It’s not fine! For all he knows, you’ve been sleeping on the streets for a week!” Shigure exclaimed. “Aren’t you upset? Even I’m absolutely livid! What kind of excuse for a father is he?”

 

The mood had suddenly turned uncomfortable. Angry, even. Dwyer couldn’t remember being angry at Shigure many times in his life, but he was  _ furious _ now. Jakob was a jerk, that was absolutely true; but he wasn’t  _ Shigure’s  _ dad. Shigure hadn’t seen him fall apart when Felicia had died. He didn’t see him hold Dwyer close to him, crying into his neck like a little boy. Jakob was not a bad man. He was a  _ broken _ man. There was a difference, Dwyer thought.

“Can you just shut up?” Dwyer hissed, his voice raised a hair higher than he would’ve liked. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do.” Shigure murmured. “But I’ll let it go, I suppose.”

 

“ _ No, you don’t _ !” Dwyer shouted. Shouted! He raised his voice and yelled, and if he was good at that, it was because practice made perfect, and he was a professional at shouting at his father by now.

 

“Why do you have to poke your nose in my business? Is it ‘cause you want me out of your house or something? You could’ve just  _ said so _ !”

 

Shigure’s face fell. “Wait, what? Dwyer, I never said—“

 

“You said plenty!” Dwyer huffed. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know why he was so angry, or why he stood up and grabbed for one of Shigure’s hoodies (he was having to borrow a lot of his clothes, lately). He just knew he wanted to leave.  _ Again _ . If he wasn’t welcome here, or at home, where was he welcome?

 

On his way out the door he nearly bumped into Azura. “Dwyer? Are you going out?” she asked.

 

He hastily nodded but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t want to risk yelling at Azura, especially after how hospitable she’d been. He barely caught a glimpse of Shigure running down the stairs after him before he shut the front door a bit too hard.

Shigure didn’t follow Dwyer; Azura had probably stopped him.

 

Dwyer walked, but he wasn’t sure he had an aim. Maybe home? Where  _ was _ home? At the very least, he could try and sneak up into his room to get some of his stuff. Yeah—he would do that. That would give him time to cool down.

 

Dwyer’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it.

_**Today: 7:47 PM** _

_ I’m sorry. _

_ Dwyer? _

_ Please be careful. _


End file.
